1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

The transition to the ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard represents a fundamental shift that threatens the future of free, over-the-air (OTA) television. Unlike the current ATSC 1.0 standard, broadcasters have already begun implementing aggressive Digital Rights Management (DRM) and encryption on these public airwaves in nearly 90 markets nationwide. This has created a mandatory "gatekeeper" system where viewers are often required to have an active internet connection simply to acquire decryption keys or download firmware updates to view supposedly free broadcasts. This requirement creates significant privacy concerns by allowing broadcasters to track viewing habits via a "return path," and it poses a major public safety risk; during local emergencies or internet outages, citizens may find themselves locked out of vital news and emergency alerts due to an inability to "phone home" for a decryption key. Furthermore, I am deeply concerned that ATSC 3.0 is essentially a privately regulated standard. Control over which devices are permitted to decode these signals is currently managed by the ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA), a private consortium of major broadcasters rather than the FCC. We are already seeing the consequences of this private oversight, as popular innovative hardware like the HDHomeRun and other network tuners have been rendered partially or fully incompatible with encrypted channels. By allowing this transition to proceed without strict "free-to-view" protections, we are permitting the conversion of a public resource into a proprietary, conditional-access platform. I urge you to support legislation that mandates unencrypted access to primary broadcast channels and ensures that free TV remains truly free, private, and accessible without an internet requirement.